Spalted Sweetgum hollow form

[Travis Stinson]

I've had some Sweetgum blanks cooking for a few months, I think they're done. The tearout was pretty bad, but sandpaper is my friend.:D Hollow form with textured rim, 10" diameter by 5" tall. Gel poly finish then buffed.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/tstin27/TS267Small.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/tstin27/TS267bSmall.jpg

[Steve Knowlton]

All I Can Say Is Awesome.

[John Hart]

Holy Smokes Travis...That thing is COOL!!!! Beautiful spalting and your work is once again inspiring. I like the texturing too.:)

[Bob Noles]

Travis,

You're killing me with these shots. That is one wicked good piece. How do you keep doing it so consistantly?

Thanks for sharing another great one.

[Corey Hallagan]

WOW, that is just plain sweet, incredible wood and beauitful final piece.

corey

[Michael Stafford]

Sucre chicle fungi rapidus....

A most wonderful piece, Travis. Absolutely incredible! Nothing else to say.

[Jeff Horton]

........... Wow!

[Keith Burns]

Travis, you are just TOO GOOD !!!! Always inspiring work and this is no exception. Now......
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE !

[Jim Ketron]

Awesome Travis!
almost looks like stained glass.
Beautiful form and finish!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Travis that is beautiful. Great work.

[Travis Stinson]

Keith, I had to throw this out so it wouldn't get trampled in the confusion. I have my vantage point picked out so I can have a safe view of the incoming carnage.;)

[Jim Dunn]

Travis what they all said above. How thin is the wall on that thing?

[John Miliunas]

Good grief, man! All I can say is, are we all going to get invites for when your gallery opens? (Free admission, of course!:D ) Just flat out wonderful, Travis! :) :cool:

[Shelley Bolster]

That piece honestly leaves me speechless Travis......and you know me well enough to know just how amazing THAT is!!! ;)

[Jim Becker]

Oh, my...that is one hunk of beautiful stuff skillfully rendered into something totally outstanding! Wow!

[George Conklin]

Very nice!
I really like the form.
Very nice indeed.

George

[Joe Melton]

Man, you're a magician.
Joe

[Don Rowley]

Dang that piece is beautiful and belongs in a museum somewhere.
Fantastic work !!!

[Dave Smith]

Absolutely incredible.
I have a lot of wood spalting right now. I didn't plan on spalting it but it is outside and the rest is natures doing. Around here things go pretty fast when the rains come.

I have found that applying gel polyurethane before final turning really helps minimize tearout. For some really dry bigleaf maple I applied gel poly several times during the turning process and made life a lot easier for me.

Wonderful looking bowl. Thank you for sharing. Any chance you will make it to Louisville, KY for the AAW symposium next summer? It would be a treat to meet you and see your work in person.

Dave Smith

Should be doing my taxes in Longview, WA.

[Andy Hoyt]

Don't much care for the fact that the backgrounds are different colors; which leads to some confusion in my gin influenced condition. Other than that major flaw, this thing is gorgeous.:D:D:D

[Ernie Nyvall]

That is really incredible looking Travis. The wood spalted in a very cool pattern.

Ernie

[Pat Jeddy]

wow!!!!
what a work...I like the synergy between the wood and the form. But what do I know...


It's beautiful!

[Bill Stevener]

Front page Travis, great piece of work.

Bill.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:)

[doug webb]

can i have it? please?

[Karl Laustrup]

STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL!


Bravo, Bravo. More, More! :)

Karl

[Travis Stinson]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated.;)
Dave, good tip with the gel poly. I'll usually try oil, wax, etc. to help with tearout, but the poly just zipped right over my head.:o I have no plans at the moment to make it to Louisville, but that could change.:cool:

[Mark Cothren]

Travis, you know I like this spalted Sweet Gum... it's another great piece you've turned from it. I like the textured rim also.

Thanks for the pictures!

[Glenn Hodges]

Travis, that makes me want to cut down a sweetgum tree and spalt the daylights out of it. You did another marvelous job with it also.

[Sparky Paessler]

Just amazing Travis. Makes me want to go turn something.

[Mike Ramsey]

Travis, can't say much more than everyone else! It is an
amazing piece!!!

[Dennis Peacock]

Well Travis.....everybody's already said all the stuff I could say.:rolleyes:

Very nice and I love the spalting in this piece. Excellently done sir.

[Cody Colston]

Travis, I've turned some Sweetgum and even had some spalt but it was nothing like yours. That's absolutely stunning.

Would you elaborate on how you treated the wood to get that effect?

[Robert Mickley]

Travis, I can't even find the right words to describe it. So absolutely stunning will have to do :D

[Travis Stinson]

Travis, I've turned some Sweetgum and even had some spalt but it was nothing like yours. That's absolutely stunning.

Would you elaborate on how you treated the wood to get that effect?
Sorry Cody, I got caught up in all the excitement yesterday.:o
I split the log, removing the pith, and sealed one end with Anchorseal. Then stood it on end with the unsealed end on the ground in a shady spot behind my shop for a few months. The unsealed end looked like something out of John Hart's laboratory when I took it to the bandsaw, but this is what was inside.:cool:

[Chris Barton]

Absolutely stunning Travis! Nice work with the 80 grit gouge.

[Cody Colston]

Sorry Cody, I got caught up in all the excitement yesterday.:o
I split the log, removing the pith, and sealed one end with Anchorseal. Then stood it on end with the unsealed end on the ground in a shady spot behind my shop for a few months. The unsealed end looked like something out of John Hart's laboratory when I took it to the bandsaw, but this is what was inside.:cool:

Thanks. I go home today and I'm gonna do the exact same thing you did. hopefully in a few months, I'll have some similar stunning Sweetgum.

[Bill Hunt]

Travis, Is that from the big sweetgum I cut? It's really stunning! I cut another one down Wednesday and got a lot of blanks from it.
Sandy says it time to stop collecting wood and turn some bowls.

I've got some intersting Black Walnut from the tree we cut in Dec. I'm bringing the trailer load to the March meeting.

Bill Hunt

[Christopher Pine]

What everyone else said.. That is just a wonderfully attractive piece...
Great wood and great shape to the piece..
Anways congrats!

Chris

[Travis Stinson]

Hey Bill! Good to see you around here. This was from one I cut around here. I'm looking forward to getting ahold of some of that Walnut:D . I told them to make sure to schedule cutting the next one on a weekend!;)
I think you need to listen to Sandy and give that PM a workout!:D We need another PM man in here to keep Andy in line.:D
See you in March or at the next cutting.

[Carole Valentine]

Travis, that is one of the most spectacular pieces of spalted wood I have ever seen! Your form certainly does it justice. Do you have a "recipe" for getting that kind of spalting or is it just purely Mom Nature?

[Kyle Woodrome]

Can I bring this back from the past!?

My question : is there any new info on how to prevent tear out? Or is what I read here about poly gel or maybe a oil..(like walnut oil) let set a bit and try to turn?


Solid work there Travis.

I looked up sweet gum bowls and stumbled on this..

very hesitant to work with sweet gum..
However from my experience. Cookies and or the few bowls I turned.. cracking was surprisingly min.


I have had some sweet gum logs drying in my solar kiln.. just because I had no where to put them lol. It’s been a year lol.

They are light weight… hard and dry now… and come to find out they have light spalting..

[David Walser]

Kyle -- There's nothing new to prevent tear out. The recipe remains the same: Use sharp tools, cut in the right direction, use a bevel-supported cut where possible; where not possible to use a bevel-supported cut; use a negative rake scraper to make very light cuts. If all that fails, lubricate the cut with wax, finishing oil, or even water. You can also try to stiffen the wood fibers with sanding sealer, CA glue, thinned wood glue, etc. Finally, you can turn the wood into plastic by stabilizing it with Cactus Juice (or similar) or Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener. The problem with stiffening or stabilizing the wood fibers is that these steps will affect the way the wood takes finish.

HTH

[Dave Mount]

Spalted wood is often punky and tearout prone. David is right about potential issues for differential finishing consequences if you stabilize with CA glue or other treatments. I handle this by turning to close to final dimension and using shear scraping to get the tearout in punky spots down to as little as possible. Then I soak punky areas with CA glue. I try to really soak the punky areas and keep it off other wood as best I can; some will run over non punky areas, I just try to avoid soaking those areas. After CA is set, make finishing cuts. The idea is to cut away the solid wood that got CA on it but didn't soak in deeply, but don't cut below the CA in the punky areas, which take up CA more readily and deeply. The CA will change the way the punky wood takes up finish, but punky wood will finish differently anyway. In my experience, CA soaking punky wood often reduces the difference relative to solid wood,, but it depends on the wood, condition, finish, etc.

Best,

Dave